UK schools bring in facial recognition for student lunch payments
The intent is to improve speed and safety, but privacy campaigners say it is trying to crack a nut with a sledgehammer
Facial recognition is a controversial subject today, which makes the recent decision to install it at UK schools slightly surprising.
As of today, nine schools in North Ayrshire will start using face recognition to take lunch payments, citing the lack of touch (for Covid safety) and increased speed as selling points.
"In a secondary school you have around about a 25-minute period to serve potentially 1,000 pupils. So we need fast throughput at the point of sale," said David Swanston, MD of CRB Cunninghams, which installed the systems.
Swanston, speaking to the Financial Times, said the system cuts average transaction time to around five seconds per pupil.
These aren't the first schools in the UK to trial biometric systems - some already use fingerprint technology - but they are the first to use the potentially more privacy-threatening face recognition. However, Swanston said that the tech is not 'live' recognition: it is not connected to an online database. Instead it checks faces against an enrypted database of face templates, stored on servers at the schools.
Nearly all parents and children - 97 per cent - have given their consent for the new system, although some parents were concerned that pupils hadn't been given enough information to be able to make an informed decision. They also suspected peer pressure might have played a role.
Privacy campaigners were much less trusting. Silkie Carlo, of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said, "It's normalising biometric identity checks for something that is mundane. You don't need to resort to airport style [technology] for children getting their lunch."
Fraser Sampson, who was appointed Biometrics Commissioner for England and Wales in March, said schools should not use technology just because they can. "If there is a less intrusive way, that should be used," he said.
Critics have pointed out that installing facial recognition systems in schools could normalise its use elsewhere, making it less likely that they object when the tech appears in supermarkets and at concerts.
Face recognition has been the subject of much negative attention in recent years, criticised for racism and inaccuracy. The privacy regulator, the ICO, has also spoken out against the technology's use in public spaces.